To save everybody a lot of time and scrolling through the comments, I will tell you what this machine does. It picks up all the rocks at the side of the track, separates out all the sand and dirt, which is discarded, washes the rocks, coats them with Armour-All so they retain their clean look for a long time, then lays the rock back down all aligned by the grain of the rock (scanned by lasers) for the best possible shine from the microcrystals in the rock. The shine is enhanced by the Armour-All coating. This is done strictly for safety purposes, so the lights from the train, together with the modified reflective surface of the rock enhance the visibility at night so the train engineer is able to spot small animals such as squirrels crossing the track, and is able to stop the train in time to let them cross safely. This rock cleaning operation they have done over thousands of miles of track has saved the lives of over 50 small animals such as squirrels. Very impressive record!

@DeathAngelHRA

4 жыл бұрын

They also apply New Rail scented track freshener in my town for the residents which are plagued with S.T.S. (stinky track syndrome) and have trouble breathing. I was surprised to read of them using Armour-All where you're from for the ballast. We don't have the budget for that,so we just use Aqua Net Super-Hold hairspray. It takes forever to apply by spray can,but it holds the rock together very stylishly and has a nice healthy sheen.

@davidroosa4561

4 жыл бұрын

Everybody knows that, we're not newbies here!!!!

@marylousherman5471

4 жыл бұрын

Random Guy...you'd make s great politician!

@ralok77380

3 жыл бұрын

thanks captain obvious

@nickmalone3143

2 жыл бұрын

Armor-all .. you be pulling my leg why do that ?

Railroad equipment never ceases to amaze me. A friend of mine used to work in a railway shop. Occasionally we sit around in his shop drinking a cold beer and sharing stories. I really like the stories about the rail grinders. Of course, I don't recall all the details but there are a series of grinders that re-shape the worn rails in series at a pretty remarkable speed. Sounded like their biggest concern was setting the ties on fire.

@epistte

5 жыл бұрын

There are numerous videos of the Loram rail grinders on KZread.

The things a human mind can invent, design and create always amazes me

@thelearningchannel3014

3 жыл бұрын

Imagine to the creative creatare who create to the genius humen so how much genius it Will be.

I doubt they would stop a train because a squirrel or some other small animal is on the track. However, they might honk the horn to get them out of the way. Most train drivers don't concentrate that closely anyway to see small objects ahead on the track. It would cause too much fatigue over a several-hour train run.

Jeez what a damn machine ! Cool😎

What, this is awesome smart people,,👍👌👍

Saw one of these a few years ago. Was at the railroad crossing, so had to wait for it to finish and clear the crossing (idiot me didn't think to grab my phone and video it). One of the worker came over and talked to us. It sifts dirt, small rock and other debris from the ballast and puts it off to the side and returns the ballast back to the track side. Clean ballast drains better. Wish I could remember the cost he said it was, but very expensive.

@Deere2154D

4 жыл бұрын

So is making ballast rock.

Well that's neat as all get out Tks 4 the vid

great video...thanks or sharing vinny

Outstanding

Very cool machine. I don't think anything like that has ever been used on any track within 100 miles of here where I am at. The machines they used around here wore hard hats and carried lunch buckets LOL.

That was awesome did think they did that.

Awesome Cool Video

How much gold did they get in the sluice box?

Just throwing this out there... If you guys have questions about working on one of these just shoot me a line, I worked a few weeks on BC-11 and spent the majority of my time on BC-10 from a groundsman (walking in ffront calling out everything) to B cab(shapes the ballast and controls everything back of the hopper) and A cab ( drove the train and operated the digging wheels and shaker).

A lot of fun to watch, if you're a railfan

@bobspringer5370

5 жыл бұрын

Nothing like gettin your rocks off, eh?

@somnathpaul6460

5 жыл бұрын

Jllohlj Zvchk

Nice catch!

This is a great place .. Thank you

@manojcarry5768

6 жыл бұрын

The301trainman

@ajaysonkar6414

5 жыл бұрын

ll

Big Machine, good

What a machine ...

THIS WORK NEED TO BE DONE IN NORTH CAROLINA BIG TIME.

Total beast

Wow.never seen anything like it.cool

Very very good technology

Nice video.

Cool video

They need to make this machine for scale model railroad systems! Would make building it more fun and less annoying.

So is this SPECIFICALLY for rails where coal is run. They dig up the ballast and redistribute so water can drain?

Nice!!!!(thanks!)

Perfecto!

Occasionally I fancy having my ballast cleaned and tamped. I think I'd feel pretty afterward.

@coldblue9mm

5 жыл бұрын

Mark Hall I think you ate too many tie plugs in the old tool house.

That guy got some ball's being in there. I've seen that thing in the Tehachapi's working. Bob ;{)

I'd sure like to see the inside of that cab..

What is the purpose of cleaning the rail ballast? Do scrubbed rocks make better ballast?

That thing can stop really fast! I wish my car was like that lol...

@thenexusmedia29

4 жыл бұрын

Was thinking exactly the same. 😁

@y0urm0mmy1

3 жыл бұрын

@@thenexusmedia29 well it does have 2 beaty claws dug into the groups and they appear to be going up hill

Ok Ballast cleaning. But what exactly is happening. What was before this machine and what is after it has passed by doing its thing? I was actually out walking a rail line a few days ago picking up hundreds of old rail spikes as they are great steel for all kinds of jobs and projects on a lathe. I could see that so many were mixed in with new ballast when new concrete sleepers had been laid. Personally I'm glad there were no massive magnets picking up all the steel because I got heaps and its great stuff.

@royreynolds108

4 жыл бұрын

Spikes are soft steel and rail, plates, anchors, and bolts are harder steel.

So, it picks up "ballast" from off of the side of the tracks, washes it and puts it back?

@clanzocu390

6 жыл бұрын

Not washes, we would just send it through a hopper that had 3 levels and 5 screen sizes that would shake the dirt and sand off the ballast, then boom backonto the track to be shaped

@Ragnar8504

4 жыл бұрын

@@clanzocu390 Some cleaners also wash it to get any fine dust off. I do see a tank car, so this one might as well.

Nice videos bhai

Watching ballast being cleaned is oddly satisfying.

Amazing machine

What country is this in? Cheers

How often do they do this for CN?

Took a while for the operators to realise that the dirty ballast was going back down on the far side of the track! The ballast doesn't look that dirty to start with, is this an important line?

@rushmore120

5 жыл бұрын

When I was a freight car inspector I saw these crews doing the same thing in the yards I worked..When the hopper car was full of the old ballast they wouldn't get another car, they'd just let the rocks fall to both sides of the track they were cleaning and we, the car inspectors, would have to walk on the big ass rocks to inspect the trains...Not good....

очень, очень, очень, большое, большое, большое спасибо!!! давайте всё ремонтировать!! давайте всё налаживать!! не будем разрушать!!! хватит разрушать!!! ) хватит!!!

This is a common practice especially in mountain territory to keep good drainage. Where do you suppose all the sand the locomotive's put down for better traction goes? It drops into the ballast and stops water from flowing freely through the ballast so you need to clean it. You PRR fans, ever wonder why the PRR lines sat on several feet of ballast? Before ballast cleaners were invented the only way to ensure good drainage was to lay down a new layer of fresh ballast. Now the machine in this video is a shoulder ballast cleaner but to clean all the ballast you use a undercutting ballast cleaner which removes all the ballast up to a depth of 36 inches below the ties. When they brought in 2 undercutter cleaners there first pass the operators removed 36 inches of ballast and were running too fast to properly clean it so 90 percent of the removed ballast was wasted as spoil on the side of the right of way.2.9 miles of mainline mountain railroad of service for a month until over 300,000 tons of new ballast were brought in to fix the screwup. The railroad assigned track supervisors to closely watch what the contract ballast cleaners were doing and the track was usually returned to service by the end of the day. We used 200 modified old cement hoppers to dump the ballast one 100 car train was loading while one was being dumped. The quarry where we loaded the ballast was less than 20 mile away.

@cartman4885

6 жыл бұрын

I was going to ask why but you explained it very well.....thanks

@winkieman666

6 жыл бұрын

cartman4885 ditto

@nghialac5859

6 жыл бұрын

News News

@IcelanderUSer

6 жыл бұрын

So you’re saying the ballast cleaner removed three feet of sand? If the tracks had never been cleaned wouldn’t the cleaning job have lowered the track height? Which was to be expected? Or was it important to keep the track height the same which explained the new ballast being brought in. If they were dumping ballast on the side why couldn’t they just use that ballast? Why bring in new ballast? Just wondering.

@ScoutCrafter

6 жыл бұрын

Hello James! Thanks very much for the excellent description and information! Really appreciate it!

wow that is pretty cool I have never seen a ballast cleaner before I wonder if all the railroads including the Ohio Central railroad and the Columbus and Ohio River railroad has one of those

@cristhianaguirre8017

3 жыл бұрын

375bxc 375nzc 375nzc 7530w3u9te47

Now I know what I forgot to do, clean my ballast.

Doesn't this ballast cleaner also take the ballast from underneath of the ties? In the video it appears that it's only cleaning what's left and right of the track.

Do they sent a tamper in afterwards?

I've seen one in person back in the 90's at a rail crossing. But how is it actually "cleaning"? I see rocks from the track side scooped up, looks like their filtered then put back. Why the filtering, and the clean rock on a dump car? This machine is always interesting to watch...but I can never understand fully what it does.

@RangieNZ

4 жыл бұрын

The junk comes off the last conveyor and is dropped next to the ballast. 1:22

@Ragnar8504

4 жыл бұрын

@@RangieNZ Yeah, basically it's sifting out any smaller particles and only allows the good ballast to go back.

@donnebes9421

3 жыл бұрын

It picks rocks up and it puts rocks down.

@y0urm0mmy1

3 жыл бұрын

the smaller and smoother rocks fall through the cracks... those get discarded. the good ballast flows back down. they have a cart of good ballast to replenish the tracks when the returned ballast is too little to make it proper fill

Can anyone tell me what's the purpose of cleaning ballast

What a cool peice of equipment, I've always wanted to know how they done that, I didn't think it was done by hand

Wow

It cleans the rocks???????????

@clanzocu390

6 жыл бұрын

Its a ballast cleaner, It scoops it up and runs it through a shaker that has 3 levels and 6 different screen sizes, the dirt falls to the very bottomand is dumped on the "waste swing" and the ballast falls into the hoppers which drops it for "B cab" to re shape it up to the ties and so it drains properly... ( I worked on BC10 for a few years)

Only a railroad could invent and actually use equipment like that.

@bbcisrubbish

5 жыл бұрын

It would not be much use on for airline.

@MAYANKYT-bh6ib

5 жыл бұрын

Y

Wish I could find one of these monsters in N-Scale for my model railroad.

@richardalmquist1367

6 жыл бұрын

Scott Hayes is

@abdulrazzaq5056

6 жыл бұрын

Scott Hayes keeping

@gerardschonewille6031

6 жыл бұрын

Scott Hayes r

@adroitone1611

6 жыл бұрын

Want to build one? Call me! Replication can be easily realized. What a project for success!

@user-cf6ez5on2n

6 жыл бұрын

Scott Hayes แแแ

QUE INTELIGENTE EL QUE INVENTÓ ESA MÁQUINA SUPERDOTADO

Wow ! *That's a complex operating sistem ! Thanks.

What a great vid...in what country are these guys?

@clanzocu390

6 жыл бұрын

LORAM operates mainly in the US and CANADA but I know a few years back we bought a UK company to startoperating over there and I know we set trains to china, brazil, mexico, germany and one or 2 other countries.

A couple of questions.... why don't they just call it rocks instead of ballast? Why do the rocks appear to be even more dirty after they are "cleaned"? Why can't they use pavement to lay the ties on instead of rock?

@GWR4079

7 жыл бұрын

Hunter Mac ballast spreads loads and the ballast holds the track in place while allowing water to soak away

@trainman3801

7 жыл бұрын

Ballast is a general name given to any material that provides stability to a structure or vehicle. They could bolt the rails to concrete and it is done in some cases like underground railways but above ground the ballast helps with drainage, holds the track in place and absorbs some vibration from passing trains. Cleaning it removes dirt and other contaminants that could prevent water draining away, which if not fixed causes a buildup of mud in the ballast which if left long enough can force trains to slow down as they pass over the dip in the track the mud buildup can cause.

@iqbalbabvani8424

5 жыл бұрын

बालास्ट can absorb and registive also can bare he Hvest whait.

Enquanto isso no Brasil eles acabam com as linhas fazendo avenida

Reading the comments I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't know what it does....other than create a couple jobs. There must be something about it don't see.

@brendenvosper7772

3 жыл бұрын

It’s a shoulder ballast cleaner. It cleans the drainage path from the end of the tie and prevents water pooling under the tie where it can pump and destroy the geometry. It’s advantage is it does not disturb the track and is low cost. It’s a cyclic maintenance activity. The alternative is full track rebuilds with 50 times the cost and with it disruption to traffic etc. These have a place in the selection of tools to maintain the track.

@craig11152

3 жыл бұрын

@@brendenvosper7772 Thanks for the explanation. 👍

As much as i love complicated railway machinery, i don't really see the purpose of this. It doesn't make it look clean, it doesn't seem to remove earth from the mix, and all it does is just cultivating, which ruins all the integrity, that rocks gained with time, laying in shape. Correct me here, please.

@phatsdonahue2516

4 жыл бұрын

Jay Swarrow , dude, exactly. Unless it's specifically picking up railroad spikes and such after said components have been replaced. Other wise this does look useless.

@Shadowtiger2564

4 жыл бұрын

It improves drainage. Its a part of a set, one of the trains that goes though after repacks the ballast

👍

There they clean the track ballast and in NW England they don’t even clean inside the trains

It was cleaner and brighter looking before they cleaned it and put it down

@tamugrad2007

2 жыл бұрын

Its functional, not aesthetic.

Increible tres operarios si fuera uruguay tendria 20 i las piedras las echan a mano ja ja ja ja

🙏🙏🙏🙏💪💪

Why do you need to "Clean" rock?

More like ballast re-alingment.

nice

What does clean ballast do that dirty ballast does not?

@kevineich5029

3 жыл бұрын

Drain away water better.

@ralphaverill2001

3 жыл бұрын

@@kevineich5029 Thank you.

What about cleaning the ballast between the ties?

@royreynolds108

4 жыл бұрын

That machine is an undercutter. It has a chain that travels under the ties, drags the ballast out and up to the screens before the ballast is shaken to remove the dirt and fines before directing the ballast back to the track. If the ballast is too dirty or broken down, the ballast can be dumped off the side and replaced with new. A trench has to be dug from one side of the track to the other and the chain threaded through the trench and hooked together to start or separated to end. Both of these processes are expensive but not nearly so as to dismantle the track and scoop out the ballast and rebuild the track.

@johnjacobjinglehimerschmid3555

4 жыл бұрын

@@royreynolds108 looked again .... and I'm still not seeing the ballast "underneath" the ties getting dragged out. Could just be simply that a correct camera angle is not present. I would also think that if it's being cleaned out underneath the ties that the track would have to be suspended, no?

What is in ballast that needs to be cleaned out?

@SillyPutty3700

6 жыл бұрын

Sand

@aaronballeck3153

6 жыл бұрын

Drainage to prevent tie rot and water buildup

@rogertycholiz2218

5 жыл бұрын

The crushed stone ballast gets contaminated by sand and debris and prevents proper drainage.

@royreynolds108

4 жыл бұрын

The rocks of the ballast will also break down and erode besides sand and dirt getting in.

quien sabe donde vendran pues a Colombia no han llegado todavia.pues por carbon que no lo hagan aca hay de sobra

This is in america?

@banjol4595

5 жыл бұрын

Yes, In the state of Georgia.

So railroad rocks are called ballast?

@elektro4156

7 жыл бұрын

ATOM09 Lm?,

@aaronballeck3153

6 жыл бұрын

Yes

@aaronballeck3153

6 жыл бұрын

jerry arnold we use limestone in northwest Colorado

@aaronballeck3153

6 жыл бұрын

jerry arnold for "private" coal spurs here. Maybe that's why.

@rvnmedic1968

6 жыл бұрын

When I worked on a track repair crew, it was also called stone. They bought stone from a rock quarry and then we "dropped stone" on the rails, followed by the ballast tamper machine.

what's the point of cleaning 1 foot on each side of an 8 foot wide gravel track ?

@Ragnar8504

4 жыл бұрын

If it works like the other one I've seen a video on it digs out the entire width of the ballast, from unterneath the sleepers and scoops it up on one side.

Ever rail road needs this did bad clevland country

Roof air conditioners are mounted backwards, not very aerodynamic that way, har...

@dhbdbdhxhxh5984

5 жыл бұрын

ព. ្ៀ៉, លក

@royreynolds108

4 жыл бұрын

These machines don't travel very fast working and only about 30 to 45 mph travelling.

We must keep our Ballast clean now, you know. Cant have dirty Ballast, it just makes for an untidy rail system.

_Oh Lioneeel...._ _MTH...._

@franciscabehar2209

5 жыл бұрын

Old Offy 440 restaurantes rsr asiático No.

@franciscabehar2209

5 жыл бұрын

Old Offy 440 tantas re mal

@franciscabehar2209

5 жыл бұрын

Old Offy 440 ragua irán r

Anybody know what the reason for this is?

@kevineich5029

3 жыл бұрын

The purpose is to remove dirt and "fines" (small stones) from the ballast that trap water and result in poor drainage. It improves the drainage capability of the ballast.

@tomjones4318

3 жыл бұрын

@@kevineich5029 OK thank you. Yes I understand with wood ties. But only a small percentage is treated. At the end grain at least.

Why do they need to clean the rocks ??

@AMacProOwner

7 жыл бұрын

Mario G So things don't grow on them and damage the rail.

@aaronballeck3153

6 жыл бұрын

Drainage

@bobhenshall6544

5 жыл бұрын

Makes it look pretty. Nobody wants dirty ballast !

Pick it up , run through a couple of conveyors , put back where it was ?

@Deere2154D

4 жыл бұрын

Screening out oversize by looks of it.

@y0urm0mmy1

3 жыл бұрын

@@Deere2154D screening out the undersized :-)

@Deere2154D

3 жыл бұрын

@@y0urm0mmy1 both i would imagine. Oversize being branches and what not, fines would be dust and needles and so forth. Not that I would know just worked on a crushing plant.

After all, what else is ballast for?!

@royreynolds108

4 жыл бұрын

To hold the track to elevation, grade, and line besides spreading the high loads from the ties to the ground so the ties don't sink into the grade. Also to provide drainage so the grade does not become saturated and make mud.

I don't get it. Why would you want to clean ballast?

@y0urm0mmy1

3 жыл бұрын

better drainage... it gets rid of the sand and small rocks that fill in the cracks between the big rocks

Oh awesome, automatic machines.

Similar the model Plasser & Theurer RM-80-UHR

They stop a 1,000 ft. + freight train for a squirrel? Really? That's gotta be one fast stopping train and one very slow squirrel.

Gondola is full ...now what ?

Кто то может обьяснить смысл этого убер девайса?)

Вот оно, пересыпание из пустого в порожнее.

@user-sr3zm1ot6k

5 жыл бұрын

Да при этом ещё приворовывают.

Why don’t they load the back of the salvage ballast first, then they could see without looking over the pile.

It does nothing for the ballast between the rails.

@paulbeach7129

6 жыл бұрын

Marry Ellen This machine is called an under cutter. There is a chain in front that pulls rock out from under, and in between the ties to the outside for the bucket wheels to dump into the screening plant.

@marryellen7713

6 жыл бұрын

I would sure like to see that machine working.

@royreynolds108

4 жыл бұрын

@@marryellen7713 There are some videos of this operation.

Great video, but what's the point, the ballast looked fine to begin with?

@spuriouseffect

6 жыл бұрын

It gets filled up with silt and sand, and doesn't allow water to flow away from the ties. You can see all the debris being ejected at 1:20.

@ianclampin103

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the reply, it makes sense now.

Que sera eso

Brasil estado.de sp

Bonjour je recherche partenaire en situation. Indifférente

А где телогрейки, лопаты, кирки и раб...

@user-cv6zz6yy5t

3 жыл бұрын

In der циффилизоффанное общество вышеперечисленныя предметты на ..Й не требуютцца. Я на другое обратил внимание: что под решёткой балласт не чистится, как при русском (как это делали в СССР при помощи баластёра со щебнеочистительной машиной) способе ремонта и восстановления пути.